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Comics A.M. | Latest One Piece sells 3 million copies in two months

Publishing | The 65th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s pirate manga One Piece has sold more than 3 million copies in Japan in less than two months, beating the two previous volumes to that goal. No other manga has sold that many copies so quickly since the market research firm Oricon began releasing sales figures in April 2008. [Anime News Network]

Comic strips | After 33 years on the comics page, Nicole Hollander’s Sylvia is hanging up her cigarette and typewriter and calling it a day. Hollander is upfront about the reason: “After the Chicago Tribune dropped Sylvia, my income was cut by half and Sylvia disappeared from my hometown. I felt the loss.” She will continue to post vintage Sylvia strips on her blog. [Bad Girl Chats]

Creators | Art Spiegelman spoke Tuesday to a crowd of nearly 400 people at Northeastern University in Boston: ““Comics burn their way passed your peripheral defenses into your brain directly through the eyeball. They dig deep because they work the same way your brain works.” [News@Northeastern]

Creators | Eva Volin talks to Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre, creators of the new First Second graphic novel Giants Beware!, and their long-distance creative process (Rosado lives in Ohio; Aguirre moved from California to New Jersey during the creation of the book). [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Queenie Chan talks about her work on the third graphic adaptation of Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas novels: “I have a lot of affection for Odd (and also his girlfriend Stormy), and it makes me smile to draw him, because he’s such a great guy. His situation is unfortunate, but despite being hounded constantly by the silent dead to solve their problems, he takes it in very good stride. He could have turned out a very different person due to his circumstances, but he actively chooses to be a good person, and to use his powers for the benefit of other people. He’s also a very expressive character, and that makes him fun to draw (him and all of his Pico Mundo friends too).” [Suvudu]

Creators | In a video interview, Ethan Nicolle talks about the runaway success of Axe Cop (penned by his 6-year-old brother and drawn by the elder Nicolle), and his other webcomic Bearmageddon. [About Heroes]

Creators | The elevator pitch for The New Deadwardians could be “Downton Abbey with vampires and zombies,” but writer Dan Abnett said his idea came first: “I was very pleased actually that ITV were good enough to produce Downton Abbey and make a global hit of it. It was very kind of them to support the period feel in my comic so nicely.” [USA Today]

Creators | Chris Claremont gave the keynote address for “Comic New York—A Symposium,” in which 30 creators on six different panels discussed the mutual influence of New York and comics on one another. [Publishers Weekly]